Meru looks to crack higher ed space with new VAR scheme

Wireless LAN firm welcomes Cisco-Meraki deal as it looks to increase integrator recruitment with new range of perks

Meru is hoping its revamped partner programme will enable it to bring on board VARs to help it make inroads into the higher education space.

Dave Kelly, the vendor's vice president of international sales, told ChannelWeb that his firm has historically targeted the education, healthcare and hospitality markets. He added that the WLAN specialist is strong in the primary and secondary education arenas, which are primarily served by local resellers, but would like to develop more relationships with national integrators serving universities.

Kelly explained that Meru is keen to make it easy for partners to dip their toe into the programme, but does not want to overload the channel with a surfeit of resellers.

"We are trying to attract partners and there are several levels of investment; we are saying: ‘Come on board with one sales and one technical, which can be the same person'," said Kelly. "There is not a real rush to go in and sign up 1,000 partners, but we want to make sure those [three] key verticals are covered."

As part of the programme revamp, the top two tiers are now dubbed Platinum and Gold, replacing the previous nomenclature of Platinum Plus and Platinum. The Authorised tier retains its moniker.

Entry-level partners can avail themselves of free online training, while Gold and Platinum VARs can also access classroom-based sessions at no charge. Demo kit will be provided at no cost to the top two tiers, with Authorised partners "receiving a significant discount".

Kelly declined to offer specific details of revenue thresholds or resultant discount levels, but stressed that the vendor will try to work in a flexible way.

"We will reward them and we will work with them on price and make sure that we win for Meru," he explained. "I have tried not to take a cookie-cutter approach. If I look at a lot of the programmes I see, it is one size fits all. You cannot accept the same level of commitment in terms of resource in [a mature market like] the UK as in Turkey, [for example]."

The Meru sales chief added that he welcomed the dominant market leader buying its way further into the WLAN space with the recent $1.2bn (£750m) acquisition of Meraki as an endorsement of the health of the market.

"It is great, it shows just how buoyant the market is," he said. "We have been talking about virtualisation and the cloud for some time. We really welcome that acquisition, it is validation."